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Monday, May 31, 2010

Friday 4th June sees the return of Wellcome Collection's hugely popular Quacks and Cures all-building spectacular. The event aims to present a snapshot of some of the opinions and ideas threaded through three centuries of medical history. Friday's event will see a new line-up, including Hope Springs Eternal, a talk on medical spas and waters by Medical London's Dr Richard Barnett, as well as the return of the advice panel spanning three centuries of practitioners, which will now be relocated to the more stately atmosphere of the Wellcome Library due to its popularity last year. We are very excited to be welcoming science writer and broadcaster Dr Simon Singh who will be speaking in the auditorium. The hugely popular leeches will be making a return visit too

The Map Curators' Group of the British Cartographic Society is inviting map curators, map librarians, archivists and all those charged with the care of maps to its 2010 Workshop at Cambridge University Library, in the historic city of Cambridge, England, 8-10 September 2010. This year's theme is "Beyond the neat line: More than just geography"

Six years after city council committed $40 million toward a new downtown library - a project that has been put on "indefinite hold," according to a report going to a municipal committee this week - the city is facing a $53-million repair tab for the current facility. While a lack of extra funding shutters plans for a new Central Library, the 50-year-old building has fallen into a serious state of disrepair. "We're either at a fork in the road or sitting on a cleaved stick. Either way, it's an uncomfortable spot," said Gerry Meek, chief executive of the Calgary Public Library. Meek said urgent repairs to the city's flagship Central Library, across from City Hall between 6th and 7th avenues S.E., have been put off for some time in anticipation of the construction of a new building. But now the new building is on hold and the state of the existing one is getting worse

Reading List Solutions is for users and software developers of reading list solutions (commercial and open source software, or other approaches) in academic institutions to discuss issues around their implementation, use, development and interoperability with other systems

The 10th annual National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, will be held on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 3rd and 7th streets from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The festival, a celebration of the joy of reading for all ages, is free and open to the public

"Digital maps, satellite images and other forms of geospatial data are critically important for responding to disasters, protecting the environment and a host of other matters. But much of this information is in danger of being lost, because of evolving technology and other threats. The Library of Congress and Columbia University have announced an agreement to create a web-based clearinghouse of information about best practices for preserving significant geospatial data. The Library's National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) will fund development of the clearinghouse at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia's Earth Institute. CIESIN will launch a beta version of the clearinghouse later this year"

"At its meeting on the 27th May, the Libraries NI Board heard that 70 per cent of the respondents to the extensive public consultation process agreed with its vision for a 21st Century library service. The public consultation process centred on a Strategic Review of branch library provision across Greater Belfast. This review evaluated all of Greater Belfast's 32 branch libraries identifying a number which lack the ability to realise Libraries NI's vision for a modern, vibrant library service, offering an enhanced range of books and other resources. It is with regret that the Libraries NI Board, after scrutinising the findings of the review and the public consultation process, approved closure of the following libraries: Andersonstown, Ballymacarrett, Belvoir Park, Braniel, Dunmurry, Gilnahirk, Ligoniel, Oldpark, Sandy Row and Whitewell. These libraries failed to match the vision requirements whilst also requiring major investment which could not be justified alongside declining usage"

Join ARLIS in July 2010 when the annual conference will be held at the recently opened John McIntyre Conference Centre, at the University of Edinburgh's Pollock Halls. The campus is situated close to the centre of the city at the foot of Edinburgh's spectacular natural landmark, Arthur's Seat. The full programme will examine the future of art librarianship and will include presentations looking at the increasing use of social media, new projects concerning digital resources and collections, and artists' increasing use of archive and library material in their work - 14-16 July 2010

Catherine Dhanjal, Managing Editor, MmIT journal, writes: "We are seeking the views of members of CILIP's Multimedia and Information Technology (MMIT) Group. It is our wish to gather feedback from the members of the MMIT Group to help to ensure that our services continue to meet your needs. To this end, we would greatly appreciate your completing a survey which should take about 10 minutes. Respondents will be invited to enter into a draw for a first prize of one £150 voucher (Amazon or lastminute.com); two second prizes of £50 vouchers (Amazon or LastMinute.com); and five third prizes of a 12-month subscription to the print version of MmIT Journal. (Prizes sponsored by MmIT journal). The survey will be open until 23 June 2010"

The serials' holdings of the Tate Library, Tate Britain have been added to SUNCAT, bringing the total number of contributing libraries to 74, plus the CONSER database, the ISSN register and the Directory of Open Access Journals. The Tate Library holds around 2,000 journal titles, of which around 400 are current subscriptions. In addition to current art magazines such as Art Monthly, etc., it holds a number of artists' serials, as well as historic magazines. The Library also holds a collection of museum and gallery bulletins from around the world

"The William Blake Archive has announced the publication of electronic editions of Blake's Visions of the Daughters of Albion copies E and I, in the Huntington Library and Art Gallery and Yale Center for British Art, respectively. They join copies a, A, B, C, J (1793), F (c. 1794), G (1795), and O and P (c. 1818), previously published in the Archive"

"The latest edition of Big Picture, the Wellcome Trust resource for teachers and students, has just been published. It looks at the topic of 'Addiction': analysing the different forms addiction can take and the science used to understand it. There's more to Big Picture than the magazine, however: extra online resources for 'Addiction' include teaching plans, video interviews and also an image gallery of material drawn from the Library's collections, exploring drug and alcohol use across time"

"Kobo, a global eReading service, has announced availability of its popular iPad application in all markets where iPad is available. Additionally, Kobo released regional versions for Canada, UK and Australia and announced a New Zealand application is coming soon. The regionalized applications, built specifically for the iPad, feature local content, merchandising, and currency. All Kobo iPad applications come pre-loaded with five free eBooks and connect to the Kobo eBook store, which features more than two million titles including current best sellers, classics, and thousands of free titles"

"New files released by The National Archives cover a range of subjects, including the arrest of a famous ballerina for attempting to overthrow the Panamanian government; an account of a man imprisoned for spying in communist Romania; a Special Operations file on a Sardinian war hero; and a valedictory dispatch from the Government's representative in Northern Ireland to James Callaghan. The latest Cabinet Secretary's notebooks have also been released. These are the 19th and 20th notebooks to be released, covering the period from May 1960 to May 1962. The notebooks contain the handwritten notes made by the Cabinet Secretary at Cabinet meetings"

Friday, May 28, 2010

Lost London pubs looks back at the changing nature and purpose of pubs over the past 250 years, illustrated through speaker Jack Adams' own collection of books about pubs published during this period. This talk was recorded live at a conference

"The National Library of China will share its rich collections with libraries and researchers around the world as a new participant in the OCLC WorldCat Resource Sharing service. Since November 2009, 2.4 million records from the National Library of China have been added to WorldCat, the world's largest online resource for finding library materials. With those records in WorldCat, resources from the National Library of China are more visible worldwide through the Web. Once records from the National Library of China are discovered in WorldCat, researchers and scholars will be able to access and obtain these important Chinese materials through WorldCat Resource Sharing"

"eBook publishing site Wattpad has launched an updated version of its iPad and iPhone application to coincide with the international release of Apple’s iPad. A statement issued by the company on Friday notes that the new app allows users to vote and share comments on stories and socialise with other readers in the Wattpad community. Other additional features include an optimised display for use on the iPad, new touch screen controls, enhanced library management and improved offline capabilities. Readers can also save all chapters of a story to their iPhones, iPods and iPads to read offline" - eBook Magazine

"The Bodleian Libraries 2010 Summer exhibition examines the intellectual world of John Aubrey (1626-97), one of the Founding Fellows of the Royal Society of London, and a major seventeenth-century scientific and cultural figure. John Aubrey and the Development of Experimental Science presents all of Aubrey's varied interests and pursuits within the intellectual context of his times. Coinciding with the nationwide celebrations of the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society, this is the first exhibition to feature Aubrey's many diverse achievements as a biographer, antiquary, mathematician, 'natural philosopher' and all-round virtuoso. Highlights of the exhibition include Aubrey's own manuscripts for Brief Lives; presentation books from fellow scientists Hobbes and Newton; original 17-century mathematical instruments; fossil specimens; and a working camera obscura"

"The Digital Book Printing Forum will take place on June 9, 2010 from 9:00 to 17:00 at The Royal Society, London. The event is designed around recent INTERQUEST research into digital book printing. INTERQUEST analysts will present key results from the company's new study, Digital Book Printing: Market Analysis & Forecast, 2010-2015"

"ACRL has announced the publication of the Comprehensive Guide to Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Recovery. Authors Frances Wilkinson, Linda Lewis and Nancy Dennis provide practical and experience-based approaches on preparing for a disaster by creating a plan, responding to an emergency and the intricacies of recovering from a disaster. The book also features seven compelling, reality-based case studies from six university libraries that recovered from earthquake, fire, flood or hurricane damage. The clearly organized text contains numerous photographs and a comprehensive appendix featuring an extensive bibliography and glossary, a model disaster preparedness plan and a model RFP for selecting a disaster recovery vendor, as well as useful Internet sites and print resources. The work provides sound explanations and advice on every aspect of disaster preparedness, response and recovery in libraries"

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: General Knowledge. Answers here.

1. What colour does your skin turn if you have jaundice?
2. In which American city is the Golden Gate Bridge?
3. Is an acre bigger or smaller than a hectare?
4. Which pop singer starred in the films "Absolute Beginners" and "The Man Who Fell to Earth"?
5. Which two continents are connected by the Isthmus of Suez?
6. The plans for calculating engines made by British innovator Charles Babbage (1791-1871) established him as a pioneer of what?
7. "AZ" is the airline code for which airline?
8. Which composer wrote the marches "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and "Liberty Bell"?
9. From 1970 to 1973, Salvador Allende was president of which South American country?
10. Which writer coined the term "Cold War" in his 1945 essay "You and the Atom Bomb"?

Thursday, May 27, 2010

"The Stoke Newington Literary Festival is Stoke Newington's first ever literary festival! From 4th to 6th June 2010 London's historic home to radical writers, thinkers and dissidents plays host to a diverse array of today's most interesting authors and poets. With everything from Gothic horror to comedy, poetry to sci-fi, feminism to food and drink, there's something for everyone in the event this brilliantly diverse borough has long been waiting for"

The Sarawak Library is working with six other libraries in the country under the Ubiquitous Library Pilot Project or "U-Library", which is expected to be launched in July. Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said the pilot project would enable its members to borrow books through the Internet and have them delivered directly to their homes from the participating libraries through Pos Malaysia. The six participating libraries were the National Library, the National Institute of Public Administration (Intan) Library, and the Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang librararies, he said when winding-up the debate on his ministry at the state assembly here Wednesday

"TRAILS is the American Sociological Association Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology. With over 2,700 peer-reviewed resources in more than 70 subject areas, TRAILS is the place to find fresh ideas for your classroom. It's also the perfect place to publish your own teaching and learning innovations"

The New York Public Library is partnering with HathiTrust, a shared repository of digitized content from academic and research libraries. NYPL is the 27th library to join the partnership, which was formed in 2008 and counts the Columbia University Library and the University of California's library system as fellow partners

* To create a digital resource reuniting all the known holograph surviving manuscripts of Austen's fiction in an unprecedented virtual collection
* To provide for the first time full descriptions of, transcriptions of, analysis of, and commentary on the manuscripts in the archive, including details of erasures, handwriting, paper quality, watermarks, ink, binding structures, and any ancillary materials held with the holographs as aspects of their physical integrity or provenance
* To develop complex interlinking of the virtual collection to allow systematic comparison of the manuscripts under a number of headings representing both their intellectual and physical states

Innovative features:

* The Austen Fiction Manuscripts Project is employing advanced digital technology to reunite within a virtual collection documents unavailable for close comparison since 1845
* The Austen Fiction Manuscripts Project is establishing the advanced standards to be adopted by the TEI for encoding modern working manuscripts
* The Austen Fiction Manuscripts Project is pioneering work on encoding time (genetic features) in working manuscripts

"EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) is announcing the release of ATLA Historical Monographs Collection: Series 2. This is the second of two monograph series offered by EBSCO from American Theological Library Association's (ATLA) historical monograph archives. EBSCO partnered with ATLA in 2008 to provide new collections of historical monographs and serials in digital format. ATLA Historical Monographs Collection: Series 2 consists of digital versions of rare historical primary sources published from 1894 up to 1923. Including more than 14,000 titles, Series 2 is a vast collection containing over five million pages of content"

The Code4Lib Journal - Issue 9 is now available. The Code4Lib Journal exists to foster community and share information among those interested in the intersection of libraries, technology, and the future

Credo Reference has signed an agreement to incorporate six Grey House Publishing titles into the Credo General Reference collection:

* American Environmental Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present
* An African Biographical Dictionary
* From Suffrage to the Senate: America's Political Women
* Political Corruption in America: An Encyclopedia of Scandals, Power and Greed
* The Religious Right: A Reference Handbook
* Speakers of the House of Representatives, 1789-2009

The Internet Archive is having an old-fashioned Book Drive to gather donations to supplement our digital book archive. If you post a book (or three) to the Internet Archive Book Drive, 300 Funston Ave, San Francisco, CA 94118, we’ll scan it and add it to the Archive. Thanks to existing foundation funding, we are also sponsoring the scanning of the first 10,000 books that are donated in this Book Drive. We are also seeking financial support to continue the scanning operations that the Internet Archive has been doing for some years now

Ian McEwan, renowned for serious literary prose, won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction for his novel "Solar." The prize, Britain's only award for comic fiction, celebrates the novel of the last 12 months that has best captured the comic spirit of P.G. Wodehouse.

The May 26, 2010 edition of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog from Charles W. Bailey, Jr. is now available. It provides information about new works related to scholarly electronic publishing, such as books, e-prints, journal articles, magazine articles, technical reports, and white papers

"Author and illustrator Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick has won the 20th Bisto Children's Book of the Year for her picturebook There. The results of the twentieth Bisto Children's Book of the Year Awards were announced 24 May 2010 at a ceremony in The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. Marie-Louise was present to accept the award and was presented with a cheque for €10,000 by Senator David Norris, Sean Brett, Marketing Controller Premier Foods and Chairperson of the Judging Panel, Maire Uí Mhaicín. This is the third time that Marie-Louise has picked up this prestigious award, winning in 2001 and 2003 for her two other nominated picture books You, Me and the Big Blue Sea and Izzy and Skunk

"The University of Virginia Library has received a major grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a two-year project to model how institutions can preserve and deliver rare materials that currently exist only in digital form. "Born-digital" materials include the works of contemporary writers and architects, as well as archives of current political figures and organizations. These materials are quickly becoming significant collections that require careful, planned stewardship to ensure their preservation and availability to scholars now and in the future, said Martha Sites, an associate University librarian and a principal investigator for the grant. Programmers and archivists from U.Va. are working with counterparts at Stanford and Yale universities, as well as from England's University of Hull, to create a model for digital collection management that can be easily shared among research libraries and other institutions charged with preserving rare materials"

Publishers such as Allen Lane and Paul Hamlyn revolutionised British publishing in the 20th century, turning it from a cosy club serving the elite into an industrial powerhouse. Iain Stevenson charts a century of triumph for the printed word

"Oxford University's Bodleian Libraries have announced that they had secured Planning Permission approval and Listed Building Consent from Oxford City Council for the GBP78 million restoration and renovation of the New Bodleian Library, to be reopened as the Weston Library in 2014/2015. The long-awaited project, designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects (WEA), has three aims: to create high quality storage for the Libraries' valuable special collections, which include the rare and unique manuscripts, books and maps that the Bodleian preserves for the international world of scholarship; to develop the Libraries' space for the support of advanced research; and to expand public access to its great treasures through new exhibition galleries and other facilities"

Registration has opened for the fourth webinar in the ARL-ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication (ISC) series, Strengthening Programs through Collaboration. The webinar, "Changing Role of Libraries: Journal Hosting and Support," is scheduled for June 15, 2010, noon-1:30 p.m. EDT, and will focus on the issues that arise from publishing services. This session will provide participants with an opportunity to learn from the experiences of leaders in the field. The registration deadline is June 8, 2010

Ariadne - Issue 63, April 2010 is now available. Ariadne is targeted principally at information science professionals in academia, and also to interested lay people both in and beyond the Higher Education community. Its main geographic focus is the UK, but it is widely read in the US and worldwide. Subscribe to the RSS Feed

Above the Fold is a Web-based newsletter published by OCLC Research. It has been developed to serve a broad international readership from libraries, archives and museums - May 25, 2010 - Vol. 3, No. 17 now available

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

"DSpace 1.6.1 is primarily a bug-fix release, which means it does not introduce any new features but improves existing features and fixes bugs discovered in earlier versions of DSpace. This is also the first [minor] version of DSpace to use a "time-driven" approach to release, rather than a "feature-driven" approach: we set a deadline and worked towards releasing on that date, instead of releasing when a certain number of issues were resolved. DSpace 1.7 will be the first major time-driven release"

"To help public libraries address the growing needs of school students, job seekers, and other library patrons, ebrary® has announced a new pilot program that combines more than 20,000 e-books from leading publishers under a simultaneous, multi-user access subscription model; free access for local public high schools; do-it-yourself e-publishing tools; and complimentary marketing services"

"The Open Video Conference is a multi-day summit of thought leaders in business, academia, art, and activism to explore the future of online video. The first Open Video Conference was host to over 800 guests, including 150 workshop leaders, panelists and speakers. Over 8,000 viewers tuned in from home to watch the live broadcast. The event earned coverage in WIRED, NewTeeVee, BBC News, Filmmaker Magazine, and The New Yorker" - 1-2 October, 2010 - New York, USA. RSS Feed

"Linked Data is a hot topic. It provides a mechanism to expose library data in a way that is understandable to non-librarians, thereby facilitating community development of services that go beyond traditional library resources and creatively exploit library data in valuable new ways. In this webinar, OCLC senior research scientist Ralph LeVan will explain what Linked Data is about and how OCLC produces it, using examples from VIAF (The Virtual International Authority File). He will also discuss topics such as Real World Objects, Generic Documents, Content Negotiation and RDF. In addition, he'll discuss the Open Source infrastructure OCLC uses to make this happen, and which you can use to expose data in a text database like Lucene. Webinar participation is free and open to all but advanced registration is required - 27 May, 2010"

"The European research project IMPACT (Improving Access to Text) has recently entered its second phase by taking up eleven new partners from Southern and Eastern Europe into the consortium. These new partners will contribute to the project’s goals of optimising OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software and language technology for historical material and sharing institutional knowledge and expertise on digitisation. They will also help to build the IMPACT Centre of Competence, which will be launched in early 2011 to provide a central service entry point for all libraries, archives and museums involved in the digitisation of text material"

Monday, May 24, 2010

"The unique pre-1700 materials in Italy's famed Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (BNCF) will be accessible around the world thanks to a new agreement between ProQuest and the Library. ProQuest will digitize BNCFs rich primary sources from the 16th and 17th centuries and make them fully searchable in Early European Books Online™, its recently released archive of rare works. The content will be made freely available to everyone within Italy, enabling all those users to explore the materials"

* In the Dark by Mark Billingham
* If It Bleeds by Duncan Campbell
* The Surrogate by Tania Carver
* The Business by Martina Cole
* A Simple Act of Violence by R.J. Ellory
* Until It's Over by Nicci French
* The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
* Cold in Hand by John Harvey
* Skin by Mo Hayder
* Vows of Silence by Susan Hill
* The Dying Breed by Declan Hughes
* Dead Tomorrow by Peter James
* Target by Simon Kernick
* A Darker Domain by Val McDermid
* Gallows Lane by Brian McGilloway
* Geezer Girls by Dreda Say Mitchell
* Singing to the Dead by Caro Ramsay
* Doors Open by Ian Rankin
* All The Colours of Darkness by Peter Robinson
* Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Edgy, grungy and a little rock and roll, Library and Information Week 2010 - Access All Areas, will definitely get people talking! Access All Areas enables libraries to promote their access to information through databases. consultation and reference services. Libraries can emphasise the 'grungy' branding to attract a new demographic to their LIW events. The theme also suggests ways in which library clientele might use their libraries as a point of access in various ways, such as assignment help for students, community hubs for senior citizens and storytimes for young children and their parents

The American Society for Microbiology has announced the launch of mBio™, a broad-scope, fully open-access online journal. mBio™ offers rapid review and publication of the best research in microbiology and allied fields. The new journal continues ASM's non-profit publishing mission. Led by Editor in Chief Arturo Casadevall, mBio™ is edited by active research scientists

"LibreDigital, Inc. has announced that it has closed an $8.1 million Series C funding round led by new investor S3 Ventures with participation from existing investors Adams Capital Management and Triangle Peak Partners. The company's other key investors include HarperCollins Publishers, The New York Times Company and Noro-Moseley Partners. The new capital infusion will be used by LibreDigital to expand e-book services for publishers looking to capitalize on the unprecedented demand for e-books, which is being driven by the release of new devices like the Apple iPad. In addition to being a top Apple e-book aggregator, LibreDigital also powers the delivery of content to other digital devices and marketplaces, including Barnes & Noble NOOK, Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Google Editions and many more"

The Library of Congress has selected nine individuals to receive 2010 Florence Tan Moeson Fellowships. Under this program, scholars have the opportunity to conduct research using the Library's Asian collections. Established in 2005, the fellowship is made possible by a generous donation from Florence Tan Moeson, a former Library employee who retired with more than 40 years of Library service. The purpose of the fellowship is to give individuals the opportunity to pursue research on East, Southeast or South Asia, or the Asian American and Pacific Islander community using the Library's Asian collections. Fellowship recipients have included librarians, graduate students, independent scholars, researchers and university professors

Saturday, May 22, 2010

"The Bibliographica service is an open catalogue of cultural works. It grew out of the Public Domain Works project which started in 2005 and is still running today. The Bibliographica software that powers this site is open-source and designed for others to use. Moreover, different bibliographica instances can co-operatively share information. Other significant features include native RDF support, FRBR-like domain model, and wiki-like recording of every change"

In a sign of how digital technology is influencing traditional book publishing, Ballantine Books and Harlequin Teen each plan to issue short standalone digital works intended to serve as "bridges" to coming novels. On June 1, Toronto-based Harlequin Enterprises, a unit of media company Torstar Corp., intends to give away e-book copies of Julie Kagawa's "Winter's Passage." The 15,000-word novella will serve as a link between Ms. Kagawa's February debut novel, "The Iron King," and her second teen novel, "The Iron Daughter," which goes on sale July 27. "The purpose is to keep her audience interested while building their excitement for the next book," said Malle Vallik, director of digital content for Harlequin Enterprises. Harlequin plans to offer "Winter's Passage" at $2.99, beginning in late August

"The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, has introduced an online database for its medieval and early modern manuscripts collection. The database includes more than 7,000 digital images and can be accessed via the Ransom Center's Web site. The medieval and early modern manuscripts collection contains 215 items dating from the 11th to the 17th centuries. It comprises items from various collections, including those of George Atherton Aitken, W. H. Crain, Carlton Lake, Edward A. Parsons, Sir Thomas Phillipps, Walter Emile Van Wijk, Evelyn Waugh, John Henry Wrenn and others. The Ransom Center is digitizing all of the collection items, which will be added to the database as they are completed. At present, digital images are available for 27 of the items for a total of 7,288 pages. The database contains item-level descriptions for all 215 items, and the collection is searchable by keyword and any combination of the following categories: name, country of origin, century, language, format (such as charters or diaries), subject and physical features (such as musical notation or wax seals)"

WebJunction has partnered with the State Library and Archives of Florida to launch the new WebJunction-Florida. Library staff in Florida can now access courses at no individual cost through the WebJunction community, and use the site to keep their skills up-to-date and help their libraries respond to current patron needs. As part of this online learning community, members can take courses on a wide range of technology and library subjects - as well as connect with other library staff - creating an engaging learning experience

The Digital Marketplace enables the effective acquisition of network-based digital content and resources in support of academic programs. Through the Office of the Chancellor of the California State University, the Digital Marketplace is dedicated to helping institutions effectively acquire, share, and distribute commercial and non-commercial digital learning content and resources, to bring down the cost of educational materials for students. The DM is an innovative set of tools and services for the discovery, selection, and authoring of digital resources with features that enable users to acquire educational materials from library, open, and commercial sources. The DM is designed to enable users to specify their preferences and accessibility requirements and to discover and author content that meets their needs

"William the Conqueror invited Jews into England from Normandy around 1070, but the Jewish community of merchants and money lenders formed an uneasy relationship with the English crown and people. Medieval Jews were considered to be the king's property, and received certain protection, despite ruthless exploitation of their finances by the crown. However, their religious beliefs created suspicion that resulted in frequent persecution."

With the Poetry Foundation's Poetry iPhone app, you can now take hundreds of poems by classic and contemporary poets with you wherever you go. From William Shakespeare to César Vallejo to Heather McHugh, the Poetry Foundation's app turns your phone into a mobile poetry library:

Friday, May 21, 2010

"Open Vault is the home of WGBH Media Library and Archives. We provide online access to unique and historically important content produced by the public television and radio station WGBH. The ever-expanding site contains video, audio, images, searchable transcripts, and resource management tools, all of which are available for individual and classroom learning" - RSS Feed

Researchers and librarians working in Islamic Studies will now for the first time have online access to nearly 1000 Ph.D theses in the subject, spanning over ten years. JISC, The Academy and The British Library have combined their resources to bring together Islamic Studies theses from universities across the UK and Ireland. Up until now this wealth of knowledge has been dispersed across 97 universities and has only been accessible through individual academic libraries and archives. The collection represents nearly half of the 2000 Islamic Studies Ph.Ds written between 1997 and 2006. This diverse collection, which has been put online by the British Library via its EThOS electronic theses service, covers fields such as Islamic law, history, politics, finance, anthropology, sociology and gender studies. There are also theses which examine Muslim communities in the UK. Alastair Dunning, JISC digitisation manager, says: "The immediate availability of nearly 1,000 UK Ph.D. theses online not only provides added exposure to a significant body of scholarship in all branches of Islamic Studies, but helps bring the work of many early-career researchers to a wider audience"

Nature Publishing Group has announced open access options for seven further journals. Twenty-five journals published by NPG now offer authors an open access option, including all 15 academic journals owned by NPG. American Journal of Gastroenterology, Bone Marrow Transplantation, Gene Therapy, International Journal of Obesity, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, Oncogene, and Leukemia have all recently introduced open access options. Authors publishing in these journals can now choose to make their article open access on payment of an article processing charge

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Brewer. "An updated version of "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" has been added to Credo Reference. This famous reference book is now in its 18th edition! It can supply the answers to all these questions" Answers here.

1. "The Big Easy" is a nickname for which city in Louisiana?
2. In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", what kind of bird was shot by the Ancient Mariner?
3. According to ancient myth, Atlantis was an extensive island in which ocean?
4. What is the twelfth sign of the zodiac?
5. In measuring the height of a horse, how long is a "hand"?
6. Which Shakespeare play includes a character called Autolycus: is it "A Midsummer Night's Dream". "Hamlet" or "The Winter's Tale"?
7. What shape is the pasta known as "conchiglie"?
8. "Foggy Bottom" is a nickname for which department of the US government?
9. When talking about Hollywood movies, who or what was "Rin Tin Tin"?
10. What is a "wayzgoose"?

Thursday, May 20, 2010

You can search and download over 155,000 cards recording the award of campaign medals to merchant seamen in the First World War. These cards record the award of the British War Medal, Mercantile Marine Medal and Silver War Badge. The cards are from the catalogue references BT 351/1/1, BT 351/1/2 and MT 9/1404. The records were used to record the issue of medals to individual seamen. All recipients of Mercantile Marine Medals were automatically entitled to the British War Medal and the index additionally records its issue - UK National Archives

"On Tuesday 18 May 2010, Planets deposited a TimeCapsule to draw widespread attention to the physical and electronic challenges around preserving digital information for the long-term. Media have been invited to attend the deposit from 10:00 CET deep within the Swiss Alps at Swiss Fort Knox, Saanen, Switzerland – one of Europe's leading secure data storage facilities. The TimeCapsule contains five of today’s most common types of digital objects. Each is converted into formats to help preserve them for the long-term and stored on a range of media from punch-cards to paper, microfilm, floppy disc, audio tape, CD, DVD, USB and Blu Ray. While facilities such as Swiss Fort Knox can safeguard the physical data, the TimeCapsule will demonstrate the impact time and technological change has on our ability to access and use it. From the files down to the 1s and 0s the Planets TimeCapsule documents the genome of the five objects to potentially enable their reconstruction in future"

"Bishopsgate Institute is looking for volunteers to help catalogue books from our London Collection. With a particular focus on the City of London and Spitalfields, this collection describes all major aspects of the character of London and its social, economic and architectural development. Bishopsgate Institute is situated on the busy thoroughfare of Bishopsgate just three minutes walk from Liverpool Street Station, and provides cultural and heritage opportunities in an area otherwise dominated by businesses and City life. Bishopsgate Library, part of the Institute, offers free public access to its unique special collections within the environment of its listed Victorian reading room and its archives include the papers of Charles Bradlaugh, George Jacob Holyoake, historian Raphael Samuel and the records of the London Co-operative Society"

The vision of Digital Access Scotland is to enable all citizens to digitally access the wealth of information and resources held in Scotland's libraries museums and archives and to maximize the potential use and reach of these resources.

* Digital Access Scotland will provide a focus for Scotland to engage in a coherent manner with UK, European and Global initiatives and develop a framework for engagement.
* The Partners will work together to secure additional funding for development and generation of digital content and access programmes to the widest audiences.
* The Partners commit to share long term plans, to collaborate, including the sharing of expertise and facilitate the development of programmes for organisations in Scotland.
* The Partners will operate as strategic partners, pursuing appropriate opportunities as available to promote and advocate for the Partnership and its stated aims and objectives.
* The partnership will also act as a link to UK and European developments through JISC Strategic Content Alliance and The Collections Trust.

"The Telegraph Ways With Words festival of words and ideas is a vibrant and joyful 10-day event, a chance for those who read books to meet those who write them. The setting is glorious, the atmosphere is invigorating. People come together in spectacular surroundings to share the pleasure and power of language and ideas. The warmth and energy of this lively gathering make it a memorable occasion" - 9-19 July 2010

OverDrive, a distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, and digital content for libraries, schools, and retailers, announced that it will release a series of apps that will combine eBooks, audiobooks, and interactive and multimedia content into one user-friendly application. The apps will be available for both mobile and desktop operating systems, including Windows®, Mac®, iPhone®, iPad®, AndroidTM, Windows Mobile®, and BlackBerry®. Millions of end users will benefit from a single software solution for all OverDrive-supplied content, as well as on-the-go access to eBooks from OverDrive-powered library and retail catalogs

"Colorado Humanities & Center for the Book has announced that finalists have been selected for the 2010 Colorado Book Awards. The Colorado Book Awards recognize outstanding contributions by Colorado authors, editors, illustrators and photographers in multiple categories: anthology/collection, biography, children's literature, creative nonfiction, history, literary fiction, genre fiction (historical, romance, science fiction/fantasy, mystery/thriller) general nonfiction, juvenile literature, pictorial, poetry, and young adult literature. Winners in all categories will be announced at the 19th annual Colorado Book Awards June 25 at 2 pm during the Aspen Summer Words Literary Festival the week of June 21-25, 2010 at the Doerr-Hosier Center in Aspen, Colorado"

"Set free by revolution 200 years ago this year, Spanish America is renowned for a fascinating culture which blends European, African and Amerindian heritages. Opening on 24 May 2010 in the Folio Society Gallery at the British Library, ¡Viva la Libertad! examines the struggle for independence in Spanish America based on the principles of social justice and equality proposed by liberators such as Simón Bolívar, Miguel Hidalgo and José de San Martín"

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

"ProQuest is using a proprietary geo-referencing technology to significantly enhance discovery in its Sanborn Map collection, one of libraries' most consulted sources of historical maps. ProQuest® Sanborn Maps Geo Edition makes map research faster by enabling users to instantly pinpoint historical locations using modern geographic information. The collection is now the world’s largest source of historical GIS-enabled urban maps"

Forty years after it was first published, Troubles, by J G Farrell, is today (Wednesday 19 May), announced as the winner of the Lost Man Booker Prize - a one-off prize to honour the books published in 1970, but not considered for the prize when its rules were changed. It won by a clear majority, winning 38% of the votes by the international reading public, more than double the votes cast for any other book on the shortlist

"Mary Webb: Neglected Genius, an exhibition of books and original manuscripts, opened May 17, in the Peterson Gallery and Munger Rotunda of Green Library, Stanford University. The exhibition is free and open to the public. The exhibition illuminates the dramatic and tragic life of this early twentieth-century British novelist and poet, whose lyrical writing focuses on her native Shropshire. On display are literary manuscripts, typescripts, personal letters, and important association copies originally owned by Webb and her associates, which now make up the private collection of bibliophile Mary Crawford (AB '77). Among them is the manuscript of Webb's last unfinished novel, Armour Wherein He Trusted, the only of Webb's full-length novels to survive in manuscript form, the others having been burned by necessity for fuel in the Webb household fireplace. Also on display will be Webb's copy of Precious Bane into which is tucked the letter of appreciation that Prime Minister Baldwin wrote to her in the year before her death, and Thomas Hardy's copy of Webb's novel Seven for a Secret, dedicated and inscribed to him by the author. Evocative illustrations by Bay Area artist William Bishop accompany the show"

Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels is the first ever scholarly, primary source database focusing on adult comic books and graphic novels. Beginning with the first underground comix from the 1960's to the works of modern sequential artists, this collection will contain more than 75,000 pages of comics and graphic novels, along with 25,000 pages of interviews, criticism, and journal articles that document the continual growth and evolution of this artform. Registration free through Friday May 21st.
username: comics
password: sneakpeek

The Jodi Awards are for museums, galleries, libraries, archives and heritage venues which use digital technology to widen access to information, collections, learning and creativity for disabled people. Nominations for the Jodi Awards 2010 are now open. The Jodi Awards were first given in 2003, European Year of Disabled People. They are given in memory Jodi Mattes (1973-2001), who worked at the British Museum and the Royal National Institute of Blind People, a tireless champion of equal access to culture for disabled people

Vintage has launched an online reading group community with independent charity The Reading Agency, via its Reading Partners initiative. The Random House imprint will host the Vintage Reading Group in conjunction with social media solutions provider Webjam. The online space will let book lovers interact and create their own personal reading groups. The publisher is to use 12 existing reading groups as early adopters to the scheme; each will set up an online group and chat on the site. It will also be able to interact closely with readers and post extra content including reading guides, videos and interviews

"Wanderlust is the UK's leading magazine for independent-minded and adventurous travellers. Founded in 1993, Wanderlust combines the right mix of wildlife, activities and cultural insight - not to mention inspirational writing and photography - packed with truly impartial information and fresh ideas"

Credo Reference has signed an agreement to launch a collection of Longman Companions to History published by Pearson Education. Thirteen titles from the history series will be available through the innovative Credo Reference platform. This newest Publisher Collection from Credo will provide libraries with the option of purchasing the entire group of thirteen esteemed Longman Companions to History or subscribing to the collection. Users will experience the Companions as a fully integrated part of the Credo Reference experience or, for libraries that don't subscribe to other Credo services, as a standalone database. This new Publisher Collection includes thirteen fact-packed, historical titles:

* The Longman Companion to America, Russia and the Cold War, 1941-1998
* The Longman Companion to America in the Era of the Two World Wars, 1910-1945
* The Longman Companion to Britain since 1945
* The Longman Companion to the Conservative Party since 1830
* The Longman Companion to Slavery, Emancipation and Civil Rights
* The Longman Companion to Germany since 1945
* The Longman Companion to the Formation of European Empires 1488-1920
* The Longman Companion to the Labor Party 1900-1998
* Longman Companion to Napoleonic Europe
* Longman Companion to Russia since 1914
* Longman Companion to Britain in the Era of Two World Wars 1914-1998
* Longman Companion to European Decolonization in the Twentieth Century
* Longman Companion to the European Reformation 1500-1618

Thieme Publishing Group has joined CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe), a community-governed, non-profit joint venture between the world's leading scholarly publishers and research libraries. These organizations are working together to guarantee the permanent survival of academic digital content beyond the twenty-first century. Additional participants in this continuously growing international project include Stanford University, the Royal Society, Elsevier, and the University of Hong Kong

"The British Library's Chief Executive, Dame Lynne Brindley, will today announce a major new partnership between the Library and online publisher brightsolid, owner of online brands including findmypast.co.uk and Friends Reunited. The ten-year agreement will deliver the most significant mass digitisation of newspapers the UK has ever seen: up to 40 million historic pages from the national newspaper collection will be digitised, making large parts of this unparalleled resource available online for the first time"

"Oxford University Press has launched, for the first time online, the prestigious Oxford Textbook of Medicine. The Oxford Textbook of Medicine online is part of a growing number of online medical products from OUP. It features the full text, figures, and illustrations found in the print version, as well as navigation, search, and browse tools, links to sources of related and further reading via PubMed, ISI, and CrossRef, images that can be downloaded to PowerPoint, and annual updates"

* Strangers by Anita Brookner
* The Children's Book by A.S Byatt
* Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro
* The Selected Works of T.S Spivet by Reif Larsen
* Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

The five books competing for the £10,000 biography prize are:

* Cheever: A life by Blake Bailey
* William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies by John Carey
* Muriel Spark: The Biography by Martin Stannard
* A Different Drummer: The Life of Kenneth MacMillan by Jann Parry
* The English Opium Eater: A Biography of Thomas De Quincey by Robert Morrison

The winners will be announced at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August 2010

"This report details the findings from an OCLC Research-sponsored study of the environmental impact of current interlibrary loan practices, as well as recommended practices for reducing the carbon footprint of resource sharing operations worldwide. OCLC Research commissioned a study of current interlibrary loan (ILL) practices by California Environmental Associates, a firm of environmental impact consultants. Utilizing data provided by OCLC and gathered during interviews with staff at a dozen US libraries, the consultants correlated specific interlending practices with measurable impacts on greenhouse gas emission levels. These findings, along with key recommendations and best practices, are included in the report. This information was also covered in a Greening ILL webinar on 6 May 2010, a recording of which is available on the OCLC Research Web site and in iTunes"

The Association of Research Libraries has published a special issue of Research Library Issues on strategies for opening up content. The special issue focuses on approaches now being deployed to increase the amount of content that is open and available to the research library community and by extension the larger world

"BC Books Online is collaboration between publishers and libraries to purchase electronic rights to a collection of non-fiction books by BC publishers and to make them accessible through public, school, and post-secondary libraries. It is the first time ever that publishers and libraries have come together with the objective to deliver digital content to an entire province"

Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography - Version 1 by Charles W. Bailey, Jr. This bibliography presents selected English-language articles, books, and technical reports that are useful in understanding digital curation and preservation. Most sources have been published between 2000 and the present; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 2000 are also included. Where possible, links are provided to sources that are freely available on the Internet, including e-prints for published articles in disciplinary archives and institutional repositories

Monday, May 17, 2010

"This week's free Wellcome Library Insight session - on Thursday 20th May - explores changing ideas about mental illness, 'madness' and its treatment, through material from the Wellcome Library's collections. Our Insight sessions offer visitors to the Wellcome Library an opportunity to explore the variety of our holdings. Sessions are thematic in style, last around an hour and offer a chance to learn about our collections from a member of Library staff."

"CQ Press has just released the newest print and online editions of its widely acclaimed Washington Information Directory. The directory provides reliable, up-to-date contact information and profiles for the vast majority of governmental and nongovernmental agencies and organizations in Washington DC."

MyReferences integrates tools from the widely-used RefWorks reference management software into the Moodle virtual learning environment which is used in academic institutions across the UK to support online learning

"After the successful launch in the US and Canada, Springer has extended its MyCopy service to library users in Europe. As part of this service, all registered library patrons will be able to order a softcover copy of a Springer eBook for their personal use by clicking on a button on the Springer platform www.springerLink.com. The softcover copies are priced at a flat fee of 24,95 euros, which includes shipping and handling within Europe"

Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Inc., has announced the Nebula Awards® winners for 2009. The Nebula Awards® are voted on, and presented by, active members of SFWA. The awards were announced at the Nebula Awards® Banquet held at the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront the evening of May 15:

Sunday, May 16, 2010

The Library of Congress is accepting nominations from publishers for the $10,000 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry. The prize, for the year 2010, will be awarded in the fall. The prize is given biennially. It will be presented to an American poet for the best book published during the previous two years, 2008 and 2009, or for lifetime achievement in poetry. Publishers may submit entries for the best book; the lifetime achievement awarding is at the sole discretion of the prize jury and the Librarian of Congress. Applications must be postmarked by June 4

Saturday, May 15, 2010

The latest streaming video collection from Alexander Street, World History in Video: English-Language Documentaries will give faculty, students, and history lovers access to more than 1,750 important, critically acclaimed documentaries from filmmakers worldwide. A rich survey of human history from the earliest civilizations to the fall of the Berlin Wall, World History in Video is truly global in scope, covering Africa and the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania. Its unparalleled geographical and chronological coverage delivers the sights, sounds, artifacts, and histories from around the world straight to your desktop

The Electronic Literature Directory is a resource for readers and writers of born-digital literature. Created by the Electronic Literature Organization, it provides an extensive database listing electronic works, their authors, and their publishers. The descriptive entries are drafted by a community of e-lit authors who also tag each work and identify the techniques used in its creation. Discussions of entries are ongoing and offer a networked, peer-to-peer model for literary review

The 26th annual Publishing University, put on by the Independent Book Publishers Association, will be held in New York on May 24 and 25. Two full days of classes for those who want to learn how to publish both pbooks and ebooks

Telefocus is the new historical media gallery from BT Archives. The 23 subject categories cover a range of communications themes dating from the late 1880s. Anyone can browse through the categories or use the search option above, and a simple registration process allows you to purchase any that you'd like. Your order can be delivered online if you want a digital print.

CARL E-Lert # 376, May 14 2010 from Canadian Association of Research Libraries. Some of this week's items: University of Ottawa becomes newest member of ARL; Paolo Mangiafico, on Open Access at Duke University; Survey of Digital Preservation Practices in Canada; Overcoming barriers: access to research information

At its 2010 Spring Membership Meeting held April 28-30, 2010, in Seattle, WA, the membership of the Association of Research Libraries voted to invite the University of Ottawa Library to join as its 125th member. Leslie Weir, University Librarian, accepted the invitation

* John DeMont, Coal Black Heart: The Story of Coal and the Lives It Ruled (Doubleday Canada)
* Wendy Dobson, Gravity Shift: How Asia's New Economic Powerhouses Will Shape the Twenty-First Century (University of Toronto Press)
* Buzz Hargrove, Laying It on the Line: Driving a Hard Bargain in Challenging Times (HarperCollins Canada)
* Rod McQueen, Manulife: How Dominic D'Alessandro Built a Global Giant and Fought to Save It (Penguin Canada)
* Jeff Rubin, Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization (Random House Canada)

The upgrade of the SAGE Journals Online platform is currently in progress. All 560+ SAGE journals will be migrated individually onto the next generation platform, supported by HighWire Press' "2.0" technology (H2O)

Friday, May 14, 2010

The Rutgers University Libraries have announced the availability of OpenETD, a web-based software application for managing the submission, approval, and distribution of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). OpenETD is the open source release of the Rutgers University Libraries' RUetd application and will be maintained on the RUetd annual release schedule. Releases will include fixes for known problems and recommendations for enhancements received from internal projects and from the user community at large

"The closure of three independent Vancouver bookstores in three months has teacher-librarians worried. Duthie Books closed in March, Once Upon a Huckleberry Bush shut its doors in April and Sophia Books is closing at the end of the month. At their annual general meeting May 17, teacher-librarians will discuss asking the city and provincial government to help preserve independent bookstores. Elly Werb, a teacher-librarian at Trafalgar elementary near Macdonald Street and West King Edward, says local governments could follow the example of Paris, France where a community development agency partly owned by the city has purchased retail spaces and leased them back at market or below-market rents to shopkeepers who agree to continue to sell specific items like books. But she isn't hopeful the province would spend money to support independent bookshops"

Richard Wallis writes: "RFID on the surface didn't seem the sexiest of topics for my last show chairing the Library 2.0 Gang, but it turned out to be one of the interesting ones. I was joined by two guests to explore how RFID is providing a better experience for library users, and what challenges and opportunities greater adoption of the technology will bring. In the UK Mick Fortune is known as Mr RFID - a key facilitator in the UK's leading position in RFID adoption in libraries, with his work with the annual RFID in Libraries Conference, the industry adoption of UK standards, and the recently announced RFID Alliance between equipment suppliers. Skip Driessen, RFID Portfolio Manager for one of those suppliers, 3M, was our other guest. Skip has been with 3M for many years and has been engaged with library implementation of the technology since the early days of 1994"

The Canadian Library Association / Association canadienne des bibliothèques has announced that the 2010 Outstanding Service to Librarianship Award is being presented to Lynn Copeland. The Outstanding Service to Librarianship Award is generously sponsored by Bowker

The winners of this year's Museum and Heritage Awards have been announced in a glitzy ceremony at London's Church House, Westminster. Hosted by broadcaster and journalist Simon Calder, the awards aim to recognise and celebrate best practice within the world of museums, galleries and heritage visitor attractions

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Human Rights. "One of the new sources recently added to Credo Reference is the Encyclopedia of Human Rights Issues Since 1945, which contains much useful information about history and politics as well as human rights. This source can supply the answers to all these questions. " Answers here.

1. For which country is the Dalai Lama not only the religious leader but also the political leader?
2. In 1994, who became South Africa's first democratically elected president?
3. What is the current name of the area that was formerly named East Pakistan?
4. The United Kingdom is comprised of which four countries?
5. In which country did Lech Walesa lead a movement called Solidarity and was elected president in 1990?
6. Which organization won the Nobel Peace Prize for humanitarian service in 1917, 1944, and 1963?
7. Which worldwide human rights movement was founded in 1961 by British lawyer Peter Benenson?
8. Name four of the five permanent members of the United Nations' Security Council.
9. Complete this sentence from the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: All human beings are born free and equal in...what?
10. Name three of the five countries with which Afghanistan shares borders.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Alexander Street has announced the launch of a new music blog, Music Media Monthly, 'a guide to the best recent (and sometimes not-so-recent) sound recordings, music-related books, videos, and Web sites.' The blog is designed to be a resource for music and media librarians, music students and teaching faculty, and music lovers. Sponsored by Music Online publisher Alexander Street and updated monthly, the blog is independently edited by Rick Anderson who is Associate Director for Scholarly Resources and Collections at the University of Utah's Marriott Library; founder and editor of CD HotList: New Releases for Libraries; and the former editor of the 'Sound Recording Reviews' column for Notes, the quarterly journal of the Music Library Association. Anderson will write Music Media Monthly's introductory note for each issue, as well as the Recordings column, which will cover significant new releases and reissues (both CDs and downloads), along with recommendations for related backlist titles